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I visited USA for 5 days from Nov 8 to Nov 12. On the first day, I spent one whole day travelling from Vancouver to Seattle, stopping at the Boeing factory in Everett along the way (Refer to the previous entry "Travelling from Vancouver, BC to Seattle for just USD$4!"). Now, I'm going to talk about the second day of my trip.

On the 2nd day, I visited Tacoma and Olympia. Tacoma is a city located about 50km south of Seattle. Founded as a sawmill town in the 1860s, it became one of the most important city at the end of the 19th century because it was chosen to be the terminus of the Northern Pacific Railway. During the 20th century, Tacoma was losing its importance as the centre of trade and commerce shifted to Seattle. Recently, Tacoma was given a facelift, with the downtown area being refurbished and new landmarks being built. In particular, the art and culture in Tacoma was given a major boost, with the opening of the Washington State Museum, University of Washington Tacoma, Tacoma Art Museum, and the newly-built Museum of Glass. On the other hand, Olympia, located about 100km southwest of Seattle, is the capital of Washington State. The most striking landmark of the city is the capitol campus, which comprises of various government buildings and several memorials. The Legislative Building, in particular, is famous for its splendid architecture and lavish interior.

In order to make full use of the short daylight and visit both Tacoma and Olympia before the sun set (at 5pm), I decided to leave Seattle before sunrise. I boarded the Sound Transit bus 590 at around 6:15am and reached Downtown Tacoma at around 7:10am. The bus from Tacoma to Olympia would only depart at 7:42am, so I have around half an hour to explore part of Downtown Olympia. I walked around the Theater District and walked past several art galleries and theaters.

Later, I took the Intercity Transit bus 603 bus to Olympia. I alighted at the Capitol Campus and started wandering around the campus. The place was awesome. I saw many magnificent government buildings, such as the Thurslow County Hall, Insurance, Temple of Justice, and of course the famous Legislative Building. Beside the buildings, I also saw several monuments, such as the Korean War memorial, Vietnam Veterans memorial, WWII memorial, etc. At 10am, there was a guided tour in the Legislative Building, so I went into the building to join the tour. To my surprise, I was the only visitor for the tour, so the guide brought me around the building for a "personal" tour. According to the guide, there are 3 things that a visitor will see everywhere in the building: marble, plaster carvings, and lamps. The marble in the building came from various parts of the world. For example, the marble in the public hallways and rotunda is from Alaska. The marble in the reception room is from Italy. The plaster carvings can be found along the ceilings and walls and they were carved to add a sense of beauty and class. As for the lamps, they were made by Tiffany (yes girls... Tiffany, the jewellery maker, also make lamps). In particular, the grand chandelier in the rotunda is the largest lamp that Tiffany had ever made. During the tour, I visited the reception room, the rotunda, the senate chamber and the house chamber. Luckily there was no legislative session during that period, so I could access the chambers and private spaces without any problem.

After the tour, I walked to Downtown Olympia. There was not a lot of things to see, beside the old capitol building, the Percival Landing site and a couple of other historic sites. Nevertheless, there was a very pleasant small-town atmosphere and the lifestyle there seemed so relaxed. At 11am, I went to the Olympia Transit Centre to wait for the bus 620 back to Tacoma. While waiting for the bus, I had my lunch. (I cooked some spaghetti in Vancouver 2 days ago and I brought it all the way from Vancover to Olympia!!!)

Back in Tacoma, I went to explore the Downtown area. I already explored the Theater District in the morning, but nevertheless I explored the area again. I also visited Fireman's Park (a park with a nice view of the ports and harbors of Tacoma), Tacoma Convention Center, University of Washington Tacoma, Tacoma Art Museum, Washington State Museum, and the famous Museum of Glass! (Ok, actually I didn't enter the museums. The admission fees were rather expensive and I didn't have much time. So I just took photos of the exterior.) The Museum of Glass is fascinating. In order to reach the museum, one has to walk across this Chihuly Bridge of Glass. The bridge itself is an unique landmark, with 3 installations of glass art on the bridge. One of the installation, a pair of glass pillars that looks like a pair of sugar-crystal-coated chopsticks, is so tall and eye-catching that it's visible from far. Once I reached the museum, I was awed by the unique architecture of the museum, fondly known by the locals as "The Cone". The cone is so unique that it becomes an unmistakable symbol of Tacoma. Seattle has the Space Needle, New York has the Statue of Liberty, London has the Big Ben, Sydney has the "orange peels" (Sydney Opera House), Singapore has the "durians" (Esplanade), and Tacoma has the Cone!

After spending a wonderful afternoon in Tacoma, I took a bus back to Seattle. (I will talk about Seattle in a later post. Stay tuned!)

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